Saturday, October 3, 2015

Kaselelie! Our Adventure to Pohnpei

For my birthday we had an adventure. It was to be a whirlwind tour of Pohnpei, Garden Isle of the Federated States of Micronesia! Glorious in both the island's beauty and the efficiency with which Eric planned this less-than-48-hour-trip. Yes.

So, the goal was to visit Nan Madol, which was amazing and its own separate blog post. We left Majuro on Friday night on the Nauru Airline island hopper. I admit, I was worried at first. There were about 10 people aboard the 737, and we were three of them. What did others know that we didn't? Why was no one taking advantage of this seemingly amazing deal to fly a family of three to Pohnpei for the price of one ticket on United's island hopper? The world may never know the answers to those questions, but here's some pros and cons to Nauru Airlines:

Pros Cons

Nice plane Empty plane

Free wine Emphatic prohibition on drinking booze you brought from home

Good price Way early departure from Pohnpei

Nice flight attendants Definitely saw the pilot and co-pilot out of the cockpit at the same time

Zero Furby tolerance policy (see pic)

Don't even think about bringing your Furby aboard Nauru Airline. And leave what appears to be your Tamagotchi at home too!

So it appears the pros outweigh the cons. So we arrived in Pohnpei after dark and quickly settled into our hotel for a good night's rest before our (MY!) big day. At about 4 am we heard a loud thud and then panic cries from little K. She fell out of bed!! :(:( And there was blood!!!! Fearing the worst, Eric and got her calmed down and cleaned up. Luckily, it was just a fat lip, no stitches, no broken teeth. Phew!

On the morning of my birthday we met friends for breakfast, had our plans all changed, then went off to adventure through Pohnpei. Our guide, Wilson, and his trusty taxi took us all over the place in an action packed day. After Nan Madol, we went to see a really pretty waterfall.

Yes! Let's!!

A walk through the jungle reveals beautiful foliage.

Jungle orchids line my birthday path (yayayay!!)

Eric and Kylie enjoying the jungle path.

The falls are so beautiful. It is a nice view to get to look up.

La Intrepid Familia Oakley!

Eric and his mad photo skills making the beautiful waterfall even prettier.

View from up the mountain.

Next stop, petroglyphs!

Wilson says this is script from an undeciphered language.

Enjoying the petroglyph rocks.

Knives/swords were sort of a big theme here.

Wilson was in a hurry at this place, though. He thought something was going to fall on the car, so we had to hurry back. I was naturally curious...if there is something that will fall hard enough to hurt the car here...why are we walking around without helmets or something??

Anyway, next we did a quick spin through the town of Kolonia. Here is Spanish wall. Apparently the Spanish stopped by here hundreds of years ago and tried to take over. The Pohnpeians were not cool with that. The Spanish walled themselves into a small city to stay safe. They eventually left.

And here is German Bell Tower. Kylie was asleep at this point, and got really upset later when she learned that she missed out. Taking after her parents already!!

After our whirlwind tour, we went on a sunset cruise in Pohnpei's lagoon. Cheese, we're on a boat!

Eric saw some coral.

And we could not stop admiring the geography.

We finished the evening with a sushi dinner by the water. It was a great trip, and happy birthday to me! The weather was perfect, and I finally got to see Pohnpei, a really special place. Thank you to Eric for planning such a wonderful trip for us!

I caught this last glimpse of FSM as we were taking off from Kosrae on this beautiful morning.